For the newest children in D-52's Project Bluesky, it has been a very strange day. First, the 'power' in their systems went out, plunging them into darkness for the better part of two hours. Then, as the power came back on, a very strange sense of vertigo, as they received notification as their room files were being uploaded into the main server.Finally, a minor upload to the children's personal files, as they're given their uniforms.

The children, now officially transformed into Wunderkind, have little time to adjust to their new situation. Although they've already begun their training in their new powers and abilities, it may come as a shock when they receive an email in their internal systems.

The email, brief and very to the point, tells them to gather in "The Commons" as soon as possible, for initial debriefing, along with meeting the rest of their squad.

(And as is tradition for me, an awful lead-in for people to intro their characters. Once we got intros, I will get into PART 2.)

Never being one for mornings, Daniel Wilson streeetches... only to have his alarm go off with the sounds of Adamant Anaconda's ringtone. For a moment, he just lay there to the sounds of an incoming call for his favorite hero. The events of last couple of days were pretty... weird. He didn't even think that there'd EVER be a power outage like that, but hey. Seems to be alright now, though. Ah, well. he thought.

It didn't really matter much. Not compared to FINALLY having his new uniform. Its really mine now... I'm really gonna do it! "MAN, this is so COOL!" With a speed only an excited 11 year old can manage, he puts on his shiny new light green uniform, and rushes out towards the commons, ready and willing to make a start on his road to being the best super awesome guy ever!

It's a large, brightly lit, multi-tiered area, not unlike the lobby of a large luxury hotel. Already, he can see a few other Wunderkind standing around, conversing amongst themselves...Four, by his count. He can't see much about them from this distance, other than...The one that seems to be dashing in his direction, taking a leap off a planter, pushing off an overhang, and landing squarely on their feet in an impressive, if not completely unnessessary display of acrobatics.

The Wunderkind that stands before him stands perfectly eye to eye with him at 4 feet, nine inches tall. Her uniform is identical to any other; bulky gloves, boots and 'underpants' on a bodysuit, black on dark grey respectively. She does, however, have one unique difference; a long, black woolen scarf that wraps around her mouth several times, and drapes off her shoulders. Finally, her hair is a very red color, short with well maintained bangs that are a slightly darker shade of red.

She narrows her eyes, and leans in, and speaks quietly. "And what, exactly, is your deal?"

It hadn't been too terribly long since Agatha came to the commons. She was still getting used to it all and enjoyed every moment of this place with great intensity. Almost as if she'd never seen it before! Which, technically, is the truth. Up until recently Agatha never thought she'd ever be able to see anything at all.

Agatha can be seen sitting quietly to herself wearing pretty much the same as the other Wunderfulkind except she's wearing a black bodysuit with golden yellow boots and gloves. Her eyes are practically glued to some magazine she had found laying about the commons.

James woke up to the message, a little bit disoriented. He wandered out of his "room" and came out into the Commons, looking about a bit confused as to what all the commotion was. He was wearing what amounted to a red body suit, yellow gloves and orange boots. His lips curled up into a smirk, though, when he thought about the sort of fun he can have with all these kids running around. James wandered over to Agatha, then smiled his biggest smile and waved his hand. "HI!" he more or less shouted at the girl. He then peered down at the magazine that she was reading, curious about what it was.

Milton coalesced along with the world, appearing in his room in a white jumpsuit with a thick red plus-sign covering most of his back. Slender, and a little taller than the rest of the group, he took in the sights of his surroundings, slack-jawed. Apparently finding everything to his satisfaction, he mumbled to himself as he exited, and paced down the path towards the rest of the team. Brushing an unruly bit of hair to one side, he looked his compatriots in the eyes with an expression that conveyed a sense of alarm, mixed with careful scrutiny (not to say nitpicking).

"Huh?" No one told Daniel that there'd be NINJA at this school. Mortal enemies of the Anaconda... And that tacky scarf doesn't really help matters either. "I dunno, what's with all the dashing and flips and stuff?" he asked. "And what's with the goofy scarf anyway? Don't you know that those just get stuck on stuff?" His enthusiasm thus curbed slightly, he awaits the response from the hated ninja (And apparent classmate).

James was a bit taken aback by the girl's... eagerness? Still, he was still curious. "What's the magazine about?" he asked as he sat down next to her, peering over at the magazine she was clutching to her chest. He also glanced around the room, looking for something else that he might be able to do to get himself in trouble if the magazine turns out to be something less than interesting.

The ninja girl backflips, landing square on her feet without moving, and places her hands on her hips while puffing her chest up proudly. "Kid, I have become a NINJA. A super-powered ninja. There's no force on earth that can compete with me now!" She glares at nothing, glaring through Danny, mumbling. "Not even my stupid face twin sister."

She twirls, falling into a ninja-esque stance again. "The name's Ellenore. You can call me El."

----

Milton's examination shows that he's got...Seven other children in his "class". To his left, coming out of another of the bedrooms, is a boy and a girl, the latter dressed in a black and grey Wunderkind uniform with a scarf, not too far from that is another boy and girl, both reading magazines. Further off, towards the center of the large circular Commons is a group of three, two boys and a girl. The taller boy seems very average, if not the "Ideal" son for some lucky parent, blue and red uniform with short brown hair and a charming smile. The shorter boy seems the quiet type, looking as if he's half asleep and not really listening, but still nodding along in the conversation. The last, another girl in black with green overtones, along with brown pigtails and green headphones on. She seems to be dominating the conversation, making hand gestures as she goes.

"Yeah, sure, if you say so, kid." Yeah, sure, Ninja. I bet you the awesome might of Adamant Anaconda could take you! thought Danny. Clearly this girl didn't understand the power of super spy over ninja. "I bet if I tried real hard I could do that too," he quipped with the confidence born of having seen it done on that one show once. "The name's Daniel Wilson. I'm sure you'll remember it." That didn't sound as cool as I thought it would. Maybe if I had a deeper voice. Or a mustache. Then it'd sound extra cool.

Smiling, Agatha puts the magazine down and shows it's just full of pictures of cats and various other cat related things. She stared down at it with her bright yellow eyes scanning each inch of the page with great intensity. "I wonder if I can find more things like this." She said trailing off to herself. "It's actually nice to see what I want to learn instead of feeling bumps on paper.."

James was apalled by the content of the magazine. During his bed-ridden portion of his life he'd come to love reading content-filled magazines, rather than those childish things he'd been reading most of his life. Of course most of the stuff written, especially the political things, went way over his head, but it made him feel more important for reading it. This, on the other hand, was completely useless. Just full of cats. He was just about to run off to find something else to do.

Then he figured out what had brought Agatha here. "You were blind?" he asked, not quite processing the question Agatha had asked. The doctors had told him that blindness and deafness were possible when he was sick, and the thoughts horrified him. To think that she had actually gone through that was horrible, yet fascinating at the same time.

Milton looked at each group, confused, nervous. Which group was his? Were any of them? All of them? His instructions weren't especially clear. Everyone seemed to be in good working order, too, so he had no guidance in that way either. Even their shoes were clean.

Milton, then, formed his own group of one, walking somberly around the room, observing the most mundane details of the walls and floor with the thoughtful deliberation generally reserved to investors at art shows. The others would find him, if he was needed. They always did.

Agatha's bright smile suddenly dimmed some. This wasn't something she had expected to be asked so soon.. but she figures everyone else had a similar reason of being here. "Haha, it's that obvious? Yeah, I had been blind since I was born, but I'm all better now!" She said perking up again.

Everything continues quietly for a few more minutes, before the girl in black and green steps up on a pedestal, and begins shouting...Loud enough for everyone in the commons to easily hear her. "Alright, ya dang layabouts, time ta get movin' here! C'mon, ever'un over 'ere!"

As the group gathers, it becomes more obvious how many children there are- Ten, total. Five boys, five girls. The girl in green seems to take a minute, to take role. "Lessee. We gots us...Daniel Wilson, James McQueen, Milton Birdseye, Agatha Lane-" She looks over the already named children, before moving on, first catching the bescarved ninja, as well as a girl who looks nearly identical- Save for her suit being navy blue and black- sitting next to her. "El and Katey Tagart-" She moves on to the average looking boy who she was talking to earlier, "Randy Savage. Wait, wunnit he a celeb er somethin? Whatevs." She moves on to the short boy from before, grinning a bit. "Junior Ortiz. Nice name, shortstop." She shakes her head, and stands, flourishing and pointing to herself. "An' I'm yer very own DJ Hellsing!" She cups her hands around her mouth and starts to imitate the sound of a crowd cheering...For at least a minute. Finally she stops, and gestures to the final girl, shorter than the others, but seeming to carry herself much more hoity than the others. "An last but nah least, our fearless squad captain, Vi!"

DJ jumps down, and Vi steps up, looking over the group, before tossing her long black hair, and making a face. "So, I bet you're wondering what we're all doing here, then?"

Despite her short stature, Vi seems to have...A certain presence. All the children can feel that she does have some sort of 'rank' within the Wunderkind community, but none of them can place what. Randy looks largely unimpressed by her, though, which may or may not be a good thing. Vi's suit is red on black, and her boots and gloves have the heft and clunk of a Heavy Combat unit.

"Jeez... I can't imagine being blind. That would suck so mu-" James was interrupted when DJ began calling them all over. He stood up and walked over just like everyone else, though standing a bit closer to Agatha, mostly just so he had someone to talk to. After DJ's roll call and ensuing personal party, James muttered under his breath loud enough for only those around him to hear, "Tch, loser..."

As soon as Vi took the stand, though, James stopped and paid attention. He responded unconsciously to her authority, which was a feat in and of itself. James was not the type to obey authority. He held off on any more rude comments he had for DJ and really paid attention to what she had to say.

Milton, forming close to the rest now that it had been made clear that they are all his assigned group, listened with rapt unease to the roll. The display of simulated crowd noises was puzzling, but then again, so many things lately were. Not like in the infirmary simulations, with the soothing regular pulse of the bright red lights.

A question was posed to the group! And, Milton knew the answer! "Yes," Milton answered, to Vi specifically, conversationally.

Woooow. Its like the first time that Adamant Anaconda met his original teacher. You could definitely feel some sort of energy here. Or maybe that's just the feeling one gets when one sees someone they respect? In any case, Danny was paying attention to these two kids. And as such he headed closer in. Maybe they'll be able to tell us what's going on. And maybe even give us our first mission. COOL! "Well, yeah. It'd be nice to know, anyway." Somehow Danny expected crazy ninja girl to claim to already KNOW what's going on, but he wouldn't fall for any such ninja tricks.

Vi smirks, nodding to both boys in turn. "Good. You're here because you've been recruited into the NEXT Initiative. We're the second step in this grand plan by D-52."

She gestures to her side, and a number of glowing windows appear to her left. Each one a different size, all relatively square, and all showing similar scenes: Burning buildings, cities after earthquakes, small villages flooded. The scenes change, but all seem to show similar events. "While these all look like natural disasters, the informed might know that there is nothing natural about them!" Vi gestures to a video of a fire in one of the images. "Chaos!" She screams, gesturing to another. "This is not the way nature works."

She turns, looking over the group again. "These are, in fact, terrorist attacks. Our job is to hunt them down, like the dogs they are. Our job is to annihilate them completely."

Vi takes a moment to breathe, and seems to calm down again. "But, we're not ready yet. So, our first job...Our first job is to go and find others. Others like us. Wunderkind."

James looked on in awe at the pictures that were on the screen. The disaster was horrible and it struck something inside him. He was glad that there was something he would eventually be able to do to help these people. When she said the word terrorist, though, suddenly he saw how he would be helping these people. He put a name to the entity that they would be actively fighting, and this made him happy.

When Vi mentioned finding other Wunderkind, though, he was a bit confused. He piped up, not bothering to raise his hand, saying "Wait, what do you mean find others like us? I thought D-52 made us the way we are. Did we lose a bunch of people?"

The images shown were quite shocking to her. Such destruction was more than should could have imagined and she now has the means to help! Agatha listens to ever detail mentioned and burns it to memory.

James was still a little bit confused, but was getting the picture here. Apparently someone had attacked D-52 and a bunch of Wunderkind, a bunch of kids just like him, had gone missing. Just in order to clarify a few more thing, he piped up again. "And who's They? Do They have a name?"

Milton stood by the group, lost again in his analysis of the various elements of the room. It was good that everyone else seemed to have some idea what was going on, because the more Milton listened, the more confused he got. Best to let them do their jobs; he knew what he was good at, and over his lessons he had grown to be very good indeed at letting others lead.

Daniel was excited. A real mission. This is SO AWESOME! Maybe then I can get to show them what I can do! The only problem being that nothing was yet said about actually GOING to get them just yet. "How soon are we supposed to get ready for this?"

Agatha nods awaiting the information they needed to get started. She was given a gift she wouldn't soon forget and wants to show them and her father it wasn't for nothing."Alright! Lets go!" She exclaims.

"So far we got two options." Vi says. "So, we'll be splitting into two groups."

Two photos appear in the air next to her. One is a file photo of a boy. He looks either the kind that's either genuinely a loner, or just trying way too hard to be one. His hair is messy and black, and he seems disinterested in his photo.

The other is a girl, who's hair is even more messy, chopped very short and not very well kept at all. She seems to have been surprised by the photographer...Though, oddly, this photo is of a Wunderkind girl, not a human like the other.

"One is going for this boy, Leon Greymane. He's probably the easier of the two to deal with..."

She indicates the other. "The other group is going for this girl. Her name's...Uh...Exey, according to the file. I dunno."

She shakes her head as the pictures disappear. "We can get a database update on whichever one you guys are going for. By the way, teams are...Uh..."

She looks at the four- Agatha, Milton, Daniel, and James. "You four. ..And one more. Whoever's left is going with me. So...Pick fast! Who're you gonna look for, and who're you gonna take?"

James was quite excited to be on his first mission. He looked at the two pictures and decided he could go for a challenge. As for another member of their team, he noticed the ninja girl and was quite amused by her.

"Hey, check that out," he said to Agatha, giving her a nudge, "I guess we're on the same team."

He then stated louder, so everyone could hear, "I say we go after the girl, Exey, and we bring along Ninja girl. She looks like she'd come in handy, what with being a ninja and all, and is also a girl so she might be able to talk to her better. You girls have your own secret language, or something."

"Girls don't actually have their own language. Twins and triplets and quadruplets and quintuplets and sextuplets and septuplets and octuplets often have their own exclusive invented language for the first couple years of their life," Milton rattled off with the monotony that comes with rote memorization.

On the same team as the ninja girl, huh? I GUESS it could work out okay. For a moment Daniel wonders if this will work out the same as Adamant Anaconda's encounters with crazy ninja, but then he shakes his head. "We should probably go after the girl, I think. And I GUESS we can take ninja girl with us."

Vi makes a face, nodding to herself. "Okay, it seems that you're made up. Right, you all need to go to the...D:/Comweb directory and head onto the Comweb. Boss already bookmarked your destination; it's gonna be the first one. We'll put in for a database update for you."

There's a momentary pause, before she finishes up by stomping on the podium, causing everyone to jump. "Alright, let's GO."

----

The teams break off, Vi's team leaving first, with the other children left in the commons alone to plan. Supplies, if needed, are to come from "The closet", one of the doors on the southern end of the commons. El crosses her arms and yawns. "Right, so what's we gonna do, huh? We're goin' onto the Comweb, so we probably better be prepared, y'know?

Nodding long as she had been doing through the entire briefing, Agatha figures it is a good idea to stop by "The Closet". She doesn't know what digital supplies will do for them, but its better to be prepared than not at all.

Now was definitely the best time to get supplies or whatever such things they would need. Daniel was just glad to get onto this mission. Now he'd be able to show everyone what he was capable of! Maybe we'll need weapons? Or at least some decent scouting stuff. Cameras and whatnot? They said we needed information, right? Maybe some sorta binoculars as well. His mind filled with ideas and potential adventures he'd have along the way. But then he realized one thing. Wait, do we really need to cart around all THAT stuff? I mean, if I think about it, we can do SOME of that....

"Um, we'll probably need some tracking stuff, just in case. And maybe that's it? I'm not sure." Adamant Anaconda made this whole thing look so easy, and despite everything, Daniel wasn't sure he could manage much of this with just a cardboard box.